20 MISSISSIPPI PE. TE. V S. THE. GAMBLING R.OBOT 5 T HE new régime is not entirely without its compensations. Al- ready the more up-and-coming supply jobbers of the trade have issued volumi- nous and alluring catalogues, invariably printed in blue ink, which does not pho- tograph. It is doubtful if the cunning of this device would be sufficient to fend off a district attorney really bent on prosecution, but the feature beyond doubt does lend an intimate and excit- ing air to the literature, which may possibly have been the idea in the first place. .. Most f the devices o red ar.e obvi- /=' " .,f J ?:::" \J'::"r _. . : ously desIgned for the ItIfi d che?tele, ":y. : ; . ,/ '\S. . :. as was InevItable In the ':< ::: )"', l' . - ; > :' circumstances. Nearly '/èêr-" .''7(' . ". , . . . ç' , 7>(f all are of the genus , .?/ J;11' -ffi9..;,. ' ':, ." f!iz .' " ref rred to, by the pro- '^?1 Y'., "-.) . .' . - .' '. ' \" · 1:", and prouder days as > . ;:;;\ ';,;;=i M" "I, " · . DJ' / ;, ,,.-, " e i : : : ry com e r 0 u let t e and other w h eel s 0 f c h a n c e. One supply house alone boasts no less than seven types of roulette wheel, each varying in the principle of its oper- ation, but all of a spe- cies in that they may be operated "three ways: percentage, give-away (for purposes of ad ver- I N the professional gambling world, they used to tell with mingled awe and delight, which were obviously not dampened at all by the ethical prin- ciples involved, of a card-sharper of decades ago who, firmly blindfolded, could name by touch each of the fifty- two playing cards of a previously un- suspected deck. Of late, however, a singular mustiness has come over this ro .',':""::": "'-''''',;'.,:=-.:' \>'. //Wtt ,f /F \ \ ..::t . ". $- " \ r .... :rr / , /""Jj :i ':': :: '. 1 ì . ': I Hi ' \ . .'..:Jt.l1r{.P: . i;, ll' . ' . . lVY-,:,V. //:. f,'- ..::' :;; r;d J · .fffJ\;'.;YJi1f v:\?" \ \j ;:(: /) gentleman's fame, and indeed over the whole legend of digital manipulation in gamb]ing. It seems likely that this old machine age, notoriously a non-re- specter of persons, has come and had its way with the most colorful and least harmful guild of our semi-underworld. Games of skill-the skill, of course, being that of the operator-are prac- tically unknown today save in the most "1 have n y technique. Now 1 n ust learn to abandon myself." JA.NUARY I 8. 1 9 0 forsaken regions of the wheat belt The past season, it would seem, marked the end of even those dle-hards who, equipped with three shells and a small rubber pea, for the past many years have been harvesting scanty gleanings in the course of their annual pastoral tours of outland hamlets. Most of these colorful artisans have returned sorrow- fully and distressingly insolvent to their winter hibernation in the environs of Broadway, as is their custom. They have practically no desire to resume their pilgrimage in the spring. Their future sustenance, they admit glumly, must come from the more prosperous, but cynical, city dwellers. The old order, obviously, would not do. There is jn urban centres a tendency to guf- faw uproariously when a wistful little man appears with a tripod stand, three shells, a pea, and a friendly invitation to try the luck today. The wistful little man has accordingly discarded the manual skill which was once his pride, and is now a mere tender of the mechanical robots which more ingen- ious souls than he have devised.